Dehecq to stay until Sanofi is "No 1"

Jean-Francois Dehecq, the president and chief executive of France's leading drugmaker, Sanofi-Aventis, has said he is not ready to retire at 66, although he is one of the oldest heads of companies in the French top stock exchange list. He was due to retire by January 1, 2008 but the company will now ask shareholders to change the rules to enable Mr Dehecq to remain for longer. He has already managed to obtain a variation of the rules to enable him to remain beyond the age of 65.

Behind Mr Dehecq's reluctance to quit is his reported ambition to leave when Sanofi-Aventis is at the top of the game and in the position to make a takeover bid for a major global drug company. However, apart from this, he has to prepare his succession and to deal with some complex issues of group structure which remain unresolved. Total and L'Oreal still have a 20% stake in the group and there are a number of issues concerning the roles of the president and the board which Mr Dehecq is keen to tackle.

He is expected to move on his eventual retirement to a position as president of the supervisory board (following structural changes) or as a non-executive president. Operational direction of Sanofi-Aventis would be the responsibility of the current head of research, Gerard Le Fur, whom Mr Dehecq has identified as the man to succeed him.